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KARACHI, July 13: Doctors at the Civil Hospital Karachi (CHK) are waiting for orders from the relevant authorities to undertake facial reconstruction of the bomber whose severed head was found on Wednesday at the site of a suspected suicide bombing that had left President Asif Ali Zardari’s close aide, Bilal Sheikh, and two others dead, it emerged on Saturday.

“We have got several fragments of the body of the suspected suicide bomber including the skull, which our doctors at the CHK are examining,” said a senior official in the provincial health department while speaking to Dawn.

“We have not yet received any instruction from the top [authorities] for facial reconstruction, but our doctors are fully capable of undertaking the task once we get the go-ahead,” the official added.

Sources said the doctors could examine ‘externally’ the body of Mr Sheikh after the Gurumandir attack and found themselves unable to conduct a full post-mortem examination.

“The situation in the hospital was highly charged and emotional. Our doctors were under pressure from the victim’s relatives, friends and party leaders not to perform a complete post-mortem. We therefore performed an external examination only,” said a senior medic.

According to him, the external examination showed that the left side of the victim’s body — from head to leg — was severely damaged. “The attack severely damaged the body’s left side from head to leg, indicating that either he was getting in or out of the car when the bomb exploded,” the doctor said.

Apart from the possibility of facial reconstruction to move forward in the case inquiry, the doctors have few options left to help police investigators.

“We have skin, skull and several pieces of the suspected bomber’s body, which includes fingers of his feet,” said a doctor.

They could have opted for the easiest way to conduct its DNA test but that requires a possible relative of the deceased for comparison. The identity of the deceased is unknown and investigators have not received any complaint of missing person that matches the age of the attacker who, according to earlier reports, was aged with ‘a white flowing beard’.

Besides, the samples included no hand fingers that could be referred to the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) to identify him. “So far the most possible way to identify the suspect is to reconstruct his face, which we could also refer to Nadra to establish his identity,” said a doctor.

The officials said the police had found the skull and other parts of the suspected bomber’s body within a 100-metre diameter of the blast site. Interestingly, an official said, doctors were still examining if all the human limbs and skin belonged to one person.